We may have been away all summer, but (despite popular belief) life at Binghamton University continues while we’re gone. Here are a few things Pipe Dream is thinking about before we begin our fall semester.

WILLIAMS’ LAWSUIT

Recently, Binghamton University settled a sexual harassment claim with Elizabeth Williams (see Page 1) ‘ a major gifts officer for the athletic department ‘ who filed the suit over a year ago against the school and four other co-defendants, including two alumni.

Williams was awarded $280,000 ‘ which, after hefty legal fees, amounts to about two years’ worth of her previous salary. As part of her settlement agreement, though, she was required to leave the University, to start ‘the next chapter of her life.’

And granted, a settlement is a settlement. If the $280,000 was hush money, then so be it. Sexual harassment cases are almost always messy and costly. But if Williams was forced to leave, then it seems strange that the men she (at least somewhat successfully) accused shouldn’t be punished too. Jason Siegel and Chris Lewis, both associate athletic directors, were implicated in the suit, yet they still work for BU.

When Tiki Mayben was arrested in September 2009, he was kicked off the basketball team the next day ‘ after he pleaded not guilty. A year after these men were accused of sexual harassment, they’re still working.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM

According to a national survey and Pipe Dream’s own research (see Lifestyles on Page 11), students are as plugged in to the digital world as ever before.

With Blackboard, B-Mail and now BU’s new mobile app, bMobi, the University seems to be making an effort to embrace the trend. Let’s just hope our professors can keep up too.

We’ve all had teachers who made PowerPoint presentations, only to refuse to post them to Blackboard. We’ve all been frustrated with teachers who must have felt obligated to post their e-mail on a syllabus, but fail to respond to the most benign of messages. We’ve all sat through 40-year-old educational movies in the Lecture Hall.

Now, many professors are technologically savvy, often surprisingly so. But it’s time for all of our local academics to acknowledge that it’s 2010 and that giving us your campus office’s phone number isn’t as helpful as it used to be.

SA SUMMER PROJECTS

The Student Association’s announcement that Drake is coming to Binghamton is seriously exciting. Drake was a very popular choice on the survey that the SA and Programming Board sent out last year, and he’s only grown in popularity since. With BU being one of only three college stops he plans to make on his nationwide tour, it feels like the SA is stepping up its programming game.

More encouraging SA news: SOOT surveys are finally being released to students, according to Daniel Rabinowitz, vice president of academic affairs, who has made this project a priority for months. We fill out these surveys year after year for some of the best, or worst professors we’ve ever had, but then what? It’s not like we take the class over to see if our recommendations were put to good use. Finally these surveys will benefit other students ‘ and we now have our own online database for BU, www.mybingprofessors.com, as opposed to unreliable alternatives.